Researchers

Milton N. Campos – Inter@ctiva Director

Milton N. Campos is Honorary Professsor at the Department of communication of the Université de Montréal, Canada, and Professor at the School of Communication of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Trained as journalist and teacher, Mister Campos has, at the undergraduate level, a teaching license in Social Studies and a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Social Communication, with specialization in Journalism, from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. He is also holder of a Master in Communication Sciences, a PsyD - Doctorate in Psychology (concentration in Social Psychology and Epistemology) and a "Livre-Docência" in Communication, from the same university.

During his life, Professor Campos worked as teacher at all levels: elementary, secondary, and at the university. He has trained children and adults alike. His educational experience was completed by a long career in practices of communication, as professional journalist. A journalist with an expertise in television, Milton N. Campos worked during 15 years as local, national and international news editor, also in the capacity of editor-in-chief. He also worked overseas, specifically at the radio World Service of the BBC in London, United Kingdom. His journalism experience covers from news production and writing to editing and presentation of television and radio programs. In addition to his professional experience, Professor Campos has been a politically engaged citizen, participating in movements such as those for the re-democratization of Brazil, the campaign against the neutron bomb in Europe (while studying in Amsterdam, the Netherlands), and in defense of ecology and democratic socialism. In his researches – given his history and one year study experiences at the Department of Politicology of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and also at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil – he integrates the dimensions of scientific explanation of communicative phenomena with social and political intervention. Professor Campos is interested in the development of communication theory, epistemology and methodology with a focus on critical-constructivist semiotics and research-action with the goal of constributing to transform society by fighting inequality and injustice.

Research Team

Katia Lima

Katia Lima has a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from the Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil. She continued her education by following a Master program in Philosophy of Language and Ethics, graduating at Temple University, United States. Madame Lima is presently a PhD candidate in Applied Ethics at the Université de Sherbrooke in Longueil-Montreal, Canada. She is interested in the relationships between forms and content in the context of language and communication, and their ethical consequences.

In her PhD research, supervised by Professor Alain Létourneau and co-supervised by Milton N. Campos, she adopts a critical-constructivist perspective rooted, namely, in the contributions of the German philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Otto Apel.

Katia Lima’s research interests are related to the goal of solving conceptual difficulties regarding the possibility of integrating empirical and universal pragmatic paradigms.

Leila Monfared

Leila Monfared has Bachelor and Master degrees in Social Communication from the University of Teheran, Iran. Miss Monfared is now a PhD candidate in Communication at the Université de Montréal, which has a joint program with the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University. In addition, she works as Research and Teaching Assistant. Leila Monfared is interested in the problem of abandoned children and the institutions that “welcome” them in Quebec-Canada and in Iran.

Her theoretical foundations are rooted in a critical-constructivist approach, particularly that of Jürgen Habermas. She intends to integrate, in her studies, natural logic as a method of discourse analysis. Miss Monfared prepares, under the direction of Milton N. Campos, the foundations of her PhD research project.

Miss Monfared’s research interests consist of further developing the theory of communicative action, taking into account its explanatory power for dealing with different cultural contexts. She also has a specific interest on the problem of religion and the State with regards to the relationships between the population, in general, and populations in need, in particular.

Nicole Therrien

Nicole Therrien is a PhD candidate in Communication at the Université du Québec à Montréal, which has a joint program with the Université de Montréal and Concordia University. Mrs. Therrien is a Psycho-sociologist who has a Master degree in Communication (Organizational) obtained after defending the thesis entitled «Practices of Managerial Intercultural Synergy: The Case of the Desjardins Movement», which provided her with excellence scholarships from the UQÀM and the Desjardins Foundation.

Trained as a teacher, she is Lecturer at the Department of Social and Public Communication where she taught, in the last five years, courses on inter-personal communication, communication and inter-ethnical relationships, theory of community organizations, communication and intervention regarding training strategies in organizations, in addition to supervising stages. She has also numerous professional experiences in public, parapublic and community organizations in which cultural diversity management, training, communication and public relations, and international cooperation, were at stake.

Mrs. Therrien research interests focus, specifically, on ethnical relations in Quebec in the context of daily communication. She presently prepares a dissertation project around her research interests under the supervision of Professor Gaby Hsab, from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and co-supervision of Milton N. Campos, from the Université de Montréal.

Frédéric Truax

Frédéric Truax is holder of a Bachelor degree in Communication from the Université de Sherbrooke. He just obtained a Master in Communication degree from the Université de Montréal, which has been judged exceptional. His thesis was instrumental for his nominations to several prestigious academic prizes. Mister Truax’s Master research, supervised by Milton N. Campos, aimed to understand the present context of youth participation on political debates over the Internet. He explored the universe of young people having different motivations towards political participation, namely regarding elections.

This research unveiled his concern with the progressive weakening of political participation among young Quebeckers. Mister Truax adopted a critical-constructivist perspective to conceptualize his research object, focusing on political argumentation. The present research interests of Mister Truax are related to his Master research, and will be further developed in the context of a future doctorate. He wants to deepen his studies by applying his expertise on argumentation analysis.